Delhi past peak of 2nd Covid wave; situation largely controlled: Kejriwal

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said the national capital is past the peak of the second wave of coronavirus and the situation has been controlled to a large extent.

He said the city government increased the testing exponentially to detect the infection.

"Delhi hit the peak of the second wave of COVID-19 on September 17 when 4,500 cases were reported across the city. The situation has been controlled to a large extent," the chief minister said.

"I hope the second wave will slowly pass," Kejriwal told reporters here.

Testing in Delhi hit the 60,000 a day-mark in September compared to around 20,000 tests per day in August.

Delhi is perhaps the first state in the country to have claimed that it is past the peak of the second wave of coronavirus

Health authorities had reported 4,432 fresh COVID-19 cases in the city on September 17. A total of 60,014 tests -- 9,564 RT-PCR tests and 50,450 rapid-antigen tests -- were conducted a day before.

He also said 10,000 beds are now unoccupied in the city's hospitals. According to official data, 5,802 beds were occupied in hospitals.

The city recorded more than 4,000 new COVID-19 cases between September 9 and September 19, barring September 14 when 3,229 people tested COVID-19 positive.

The highest number of cases (4,473) were reported on September 16. According to the Delhi government's data, 4,432 cases were recorded a day after, 4,127 on September 18 and 4,071 on September 19.

The number of new coronavirus cases has remained below the 3,500-mark in the last 10 days.

Authorities reported 1,947 new cases on Monday, 2,683 on Sunday, 2,258 on Saturday, 2,920 on Friday, 3,037 on Thursday, and 3,390 on Wednesday.

Authorities reported 32 COVID-19 related deaths on Monday, 38 on Sunday, 34 on Saturday, 37 on Friday, 40 on Thursday 41 on Wednesday and 48 on Tuesday last week, which was the highest since July 16 when the city recorded 58 fatalities.

A total of 35,593 tests -- 7,585 RT-PCR tests and 28,008 rapid-antigen tests -- were conducted on Sunday, while 50,832 tests -- 8,963 RT-PCR tests and 41,869 rapid-antigen tests -- were done on Saturday.

On Friday, 39,306 tests -- 8,844 RT-PCR tests and 30,462 tests -- were done as compared to 56,258 tests -- 11,105 RT-PCR tests and 45,153 rapid-antigen tests -- on Thursday.

On Monday, the case positivity rate was 5.47 per cent, while the cumulative positivity rate was 8.82 per cent.

The average death rate for the last 10 days stands at 1.41 per cent.

Experts also concurred that COVID-19 cases have come down in the last few days and that Delhi has crossed the peak of the second COVID-19 wave.

"We had a similar experience at the hospital. We had a peak, and then it came down. The number went up again but now we are seeing a decline in admissions.

"If the numbers persist for a week, we can safely say that we are past the second peak," said Dr Rajesh Chawla, senior consultant, critical care and respiratory medicine at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital.

Suresh Kumar, Medical Director of Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital, said there is certainly a decline in the number of new coronavirus cases as compared to mid-September.

"We can say that the second peak is over now. The number of cases is expected to decrease further," he said, adding that the high number of deaths over the last few days can be attributed to severe patients coming to Delhi for treatment from neighbouring states.

Dr BL Sherwal, Medical Director of Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital, said, "We also saw an increase in hospital admissions around September 16-17 when the cases rose. But the number of admissions has decreased now and discharges have increased."

"Bed occupancy has also gone down. It can be attributed to awareness and home isolation measures of the Delhi government," he said.